Recently Watched Films

 

In a word: crap.

Everyone who watched this told me not to bother, I found the opposite to be true. Maybe not reading the book gave me a different perspective.

A bit too obviously low budget to be a truly great movie, but it does a lot on very little. I'm looking forward to watching the sequels. 

They intentionally gave this movie a really dull sounding premise. It turns dark really quickly. 

True Grit's sequel. Not as good but an enjoyable western. 

A good western set during the Civil War, where the Union and Confederates reluctantly team up to stop a marauding Apache. A bit overlong in the end, but mostly very good early Sam Peckinpah work. 

Real obscure 70's western. Despite mumbling's around the internet of it being a hidden gem, it's actually a real low budget movie that's short on actual plot (those lines on the poster? Pretty much complete fabrication) and 'The Indian' is unfortunately played by a white actor, which seems real bad in a movie that puts a black man and a Native America as its two leads characters. 

Also neither of them is called Charley One-Eye. Charley One-Eye was a fucking chicken. 

Weird film. Worth watching I guess if you enjoy westerns as much as I do and want to see something unusual, otherwise not recommended. Had potential to be so much more. 

Another brilliant 50's western. 

More excellent Eastwood. 

Early Sam Peckinpah western. Probably the weakest of his I've seen so far. 

Every bit as good as I'd been led to believe it was. 

Readers of the book tell me this is shit. Having never read the book I thought it was okay, with one scene in particular conveying a worryingly powerful message that made the film all too believable as something that really could happen one day, especially with how many people act these days when we all are supposed to be 110% politically correct. 

Third watch this year. This has become one of those movies that I can just watch and watch over again. 

James Stewart/Henry Fonda western. Thought it was a bit poor at first but it got a lot better as it went along. Interestingly Fonda plays the lead villain here (though he spends a good portion of the movie laid up in bed wounded) and it was released a little before his infamous casting against type in Once Upon a Time in the West. 

A very different kind of western film. Deliberating slow in pace, but overall very good. 

I was expecting to like this black comedy crime film from the brother of the director of In Bruges, but not this much. Quite surprised by the amount of influence of spaghetti westerns in it, especially the music, but also in the overall plot and characterisations. 

In comparison this one, the last of the six feature films the McDonagh brothers have made between them I hadn't seen, was a massive disappointment. Much less entertaining darkly comic dialogue and events, which even the more psychological drama film Calvary does better than this and two generally unlikable characters make this film a complete misfire. 

For an actor best known as playing the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant sure knows how to play a disturbing villain. 

This Dirty Harry sequel was just as good as the first, for me. 

Excellent psychological drama with black comedy elements. 

Not classic Eastwood, but entertaining and he and Jeff Bridges make a great double act.